SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Hyp-nautical

Hello loves & happy Sunday! & happy long weekend to all who get to celebrate! The May long weekend always feels like the official beginning of Summer, which I’ll gladly take — even if they’re calling for thunderstorms today. Bring on the beach & BBQ!

Today, though, I’m throwing things back to a shade originally released for Winter 2020. What can I say — I like to keep you on your toes. This is Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Hip-nautical.

3 coats + top coat

I’m not even sure how to begin to describe this shifty polish. The base is a darker blue that flashes purple or lighter blue depending on the lighting or how you move your fingers. It did take 3 coats for a full solid coverage — & the best shift — but the polish formula is very thin so it dries quickly.

Definitely needs a good coat of top coat to finish it off. Keeps that beautiful shine, & helps smooth out any brush strokes.

The shift between colours is actually very good. Maybe not as shifty as in the bottle, but I rarely find that drugstore polishes are. The flash of blue is very strong on this shade, which is just absolutely gorgeous! & I love, as you can see in this macro shot, you get all the levels on this polish in one shot.

Sally Hansen Miracle Gel Hyp-nautical is now part of the permanent core collection, so you can find it where ever Sally Hansen shades are sold including:

What do you think about Sally Hansen Hyp-nautical? Is this a shade that you would wear? Are you a fan of the Sally Hansen Miracle Gel line? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below.

SWATCH SUNDAY — OPI Peace, Love & OPI

Hello lovelies & happy Sunday. & happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians. I hope you all get a chance to celebrate however you prefer — whether that is turkey, Tofurky or pizza!

Today, though, it’s all about Swatch Sunday, & I’m sharing a fun old school shade from OPI dating back to OPI Fall/Winter San Fransisco collection from 2013. This is OPI Peace Love & OPI, a beautiful charcoal grey metallic with a fun teal purple duo chrome effect.

2 coats + Sally Hansen Complete Salon Manicure

The formula on this beauty isn’t too hard, though it does have a bit of streakiness to it, which I found is alleviated with some top coat. The colour is beautiful — it reminds me a lot of Essie For The Twill of It which is another silver/grey favourite I used to wear quite a bit. & I do love a good duo/multi chrome effect, although I found it didn’t quite show up as much in my photos as it does in person.

A little macro shot action. You can really see the teal & purple here.

This shade has been in my stash a long, long time. I think, at least 6 years — it has a white spot on its lid, which says to me I bought it on clearance at Chatters. When I worked close to one, I used to love checking out the clearance section because they always had the most amazing deals on polishes!

What do you think about this shade from OPI? Do you have Peace Love & OPI in your own stash? Let me know what your favourite metallic grey polish is down in the comments below.

Have a lovely Sunday.

SWATCH SUNDAY — Sally Hansen CSM Black & Blue

Hello lovelies & Happy Sunday!

I hope everyone is off to a lovely start to their Sunday — the weekend is almost over! & February is quickly rounding the corner too.

Today’s Swatch Sunday pick is another score from my favourite nail polish clearance section at Lawton’s: Sally Hansen Black & Blue. I’ve actually picked up this polish a few times when out shopping for nail polish, but never actually bought it. So obviously when I saw it on clearance (& for $1 too!) I just knew that I needed to add it to my stash.

3 coats + Essie Good To Go Top Coat

Sally Hansen Black & Blue itself is a grey-ish blue-ish multichrome shimmer (there is some purple in there too depending on the way you move your hand). It’s also very, very, VERY sheer. Like super sheer. The above swatch is 3 coats of polish, and if I move my hand in certain ways you can definitely see my nail line. The blue shimmer is very prominent, while the purple all depends on how you move your hand around — as you can see above, I managed to capture it a bit, but it’s not the easiest to pick up on camera. I have a feeling this shade would definitely probably stand out more layered over a darker shade, as a lot of people have done for swatches, If I was going to wear this shade for everyday wear, that’s probably how I would do it too!

This is definitely a pretty, although very sheer, shade. Application was pretty easy considering it has one of those shimmery formulas that love to streak, & I didn’t find it was too, too watery. The colour, all things considered, is pretty. I could definitely see it being the perfect base for some mermaid nails (whenever I finally get more mermaid scale vinyls — I haven’t had any in AGES.) That being said, I’m kind of glad that I waited to get this shade on clearance, because I don’t think it’s going to be one that is in my frequent nail rotation. That being said, we will see how it looks layered over a darker shade… it may very well blow my socks off!

What do you think about this Sally Hansen shade Black & Blue? Do you have this shade in your collection? What is your favourite thing to do with shades that are more on the sheer side? Let me know all your thoughts in the comments below!

SWATCH SUNDAY — ACO by Ardene Twilight Zone

There has been a lot of pink & red happening on the blog in preparation for Valentine’s Day,  so I thought it would be fun to break it up with something a little different! So today’s Swatch Sunday is all about this beautiful multichrome from Ardene called Twilight Zone that’s been in my stash for a good 2-3 years now. I’m not sure if it’s still available in store, although I do know they come out with different (similar) duochrome & multichrome shades every so often, so I would recommend popping into a store near you to see what hidden beauty you might find!

For this swatch, I applied two coats of Twilight Zone over a dark base of Essie Under the Twlight because the polish itself is fairly sheer & would require more coats than I have patience for.

As you can see from the bottle, the base of the polish is a sheer-ish green blue with iridescent blue shimmers. You could definitely try & build it up to opacity, but I’m not sure how many coats that would be. If I had to guess, I’d say you’d be looking at least 4. & besides, I really find these shades work best with undies–it makes the change that much more apparent. You can see above that it flashes between blue & pink/purple depending on how you move your hand.

Ugh, it’s just so pretty! Why do I always forget how much I love shifty shades until I’m wearing them again? I’ve been reorganizing the nail room because I got some new storage, & gushing over my old school shades so much, like this beauty & my Claire’s Villain shade dupes from 2010. I keep trying to figure out how to best share my stash on the blog, but with 1000+ nail polishes I’m not sure the best way to document them. Any suggestions on the best way/app to organize what I have & be able to share?

 

Like I said, I don’t believe that Ardene Twilight Zone is still available for sale in store (unless you check out a Outlet perhaps) but I know that they’re always coming out with new & interesting shades so I would definitely recommend checking out what they have. I’ve bought some pretty fun polishes there over the years that are still favourites of mine.

What do you think of this shade? Have you ever bought an amazing polish in a surprisingly place? Let me know your thoughts on the comments below.